29 



(the present specimen being but ten inches in length,) the animal is 

 as thoroughly armed, both with respect to scales and spines, as the full- 

 grown one. The specimen was also considered by Mr. Thompson as 

 interesting on account of its locality, it having been obtained in 

 Sierra Leone. 



Mr. Thompson also read the following notice of the Cuckoo, Cucu- 

 liis canorus, Linn., copied from his Journal, under the date of 28th 

 May, 1833. 



" On examination of three cuckoos to-day, which were killed in 

 the counties of Tyrone and Antrim within the last week, I found 

 them all to be in different stages of plumage : one was mature ; ano- 

 ther (a female) exhibited on the sides of the neck and breast the red- 

 dish-coloured markings of the young bird, the remainder of the plu- 

 mage being that of maturity ; the third specimen had reddish mark- 

 ings disposed entirely over it, much resembling the plumage described 

 by M. Temrainck as assumed by 'les jeuncs tels qu'ils emigrent en 

 automne', (Man. d'Orn, torn. l.'p. 383), but having a greater pro- 

 portion of red, especially on the tail covert.s, than is specified in his 

 description of the bird at that age. This individual proved, on dissec- 

 tion, to be a female, and did not contain any eggs so large as ordi- 

 nary sized peas. The stomach, with the exception of the presence of 

 some small sharp gravel, was entirely empty, and was closely coated 

 over with hair." 



Attention was called to the stomach of one of these birds, that the 

 hair with which it is lined might be observed. From its close adhesion 

 to the inner surface of the stomach, and from the regularity vyith 

 which it is arranged, Mr. Thompson was at first disposed to consider 

 this hair as being of spontaneous growth ; but part of the stomach 

 having been subjected to maceration in water, and afterwards viewed 

 thro\i;^h a microscope of high power, the hairs proved, to the entire 

 satisfaction of Mr. Owen and himself, to be altogether borrowed from 

 the larvce of the Tiger-moth, Arctia Caja, Schrank, the only species 

 found in the stomach of the bird in various specimens from different 

 parts of the country which were examined by Mr. Thompson in the 

 months of May and June, 1833. 



Mr. Thompson also read a Catalogue, with incidental notices, of 

 Birds new to the Irish Fauna. He prefaced his list lay remarking 

 that he did not bring them forward as unrecorded, without having 

 previously consulted every work in which he was aware that the birds 

 of Ireland are either particularly described or incidentally noticed ; 

 including the Statistical Surveys'of the Lish counties, which contain, 

 in several instances, Catalogues of the Birds that have been observed 

 in them. 



The Catalogue is as follows : 



L Jlpine Swift, Cijpselus alpinus, Temm. By the ' Dublin Penny 

 Journal' of March 30, 1833, my attention was directed to a rara avis, 

 said to have been killed at Iluthfarnham, and preserved in the fine col- 

 lection of birds belonging to Thomas W. Warren, Esq. On calling to 



s 



